


staring without seeing

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Young Wallander (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Reza POV, Whump, another amazing title from yours truly, but i can't title it hallucination again i have a fic already w that!!, very slight spoiler for episode 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29366607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: febuwhump day 11: hallucinationsKurt isn’t looking back at him. It’s like he’s looking rightthroughhim, actually. His eyes are wide and unblinking, and his face has gone pale, and he’s shaking, fine tremors up and down his whole body. He looksterrified.
Relationships: Kurt Wallander & Reza Al-Rahman
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	staring without seeing

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this was an unexpected fic for this fandom, suprise! i thought i was going to write something else but i so wasn't feeling it and i am apparently in a kurt mood so. here this is.

Reza follows Kurt into the building, a recently-shut-down restaurant that has unfortunately shut down because of a murder that had occurred on the premises. Which is what the two of them are investigating. 

Kurt pushes through the swinging door separating the dining room from the kitchen, and Reza steps in a few seconds behind him, having stopped to take a look behind the hostess stand. 

Kurt is standing stock-still in the middle of the kitchen, and he is taking a deep breath in. Reza copies him without thinking, and catches a whiff of something that smells... _ wrong.  _

“Do you smell that?” Kurt asks, turning to look at him.

“Yeah.”

They share a look of understanding, and immediately rush out of the kitchen, through the dining room, out the front door, and down the street, the whole time shouting at pedestrians to evacuate the area because of a potential gas leak. 

Reza reaches for his radio, letting everyone back at the station know about the possible danger. They say they’ll send people to check it out immediately. Reza breathes a sigh of relief even as he continues hurrying, now circling the block and shooing out a few stragglers. He turns to Kurt to make sure he knows that help is coming. 

Kurt’s just  _ standing there,  _ completely still, like he’d been in the kitchen. He’s too close to the building, far too close, and he shouldn’t be there, they don’t know what the hell that gas is or what it could do. Reza runs back to Kurt when the man doesn’t respond to his shouts, and grabs him around the arm, fairly dragging him along.

Kurt stumbles, and then stops moving completely. Reza’s still trying to pull him along, but he’s digging his heels into the ground and trying to wrench his arm out of Reza’s grasp.

“Kurt, what the hell, man?” He looks at Kurt, trying to figure out what’s wrong with him.

Kurt isn’t looking back at him. It’s like he’s looking right  _ through  _ him, actually. His eyes are wide and unblinking, and his face has gone pale, and he’s shaking, fine tremors up and down his whole body. He looks  _ terrified. _ Reza looks around and can find no reason for his best friend’s fear.  _ Unless... _ he doesn’t really want to think it. Doesn’t want to think about what that smell could have been, what it could have done.

But Kurt is still shaking and staring unseeing at Reza, and Reza has no idea what to do, so he thinks it.  _ Hallucinations. _ Showing him things that are clearly scaring him. Caused by whatever the  _ fuck  _ was in that building. 

He places a hand on Kurt’s shoulder, intending for it to be a grounding touch. But Kurt jerks away, suddenly, and trips over his own feet, falling backwards onto the ground. He pushes himself away from  _ something, _ frantically, scraping his palms against the sidewalk, and Reza winces when he sees them start to bleed. He doesn’t dare touch Kurt again, and his comrades are still a couple minutes out, and he has absolutely  _ no idea _ what he can do other than stay here and watch Kurt panic. 

Kurt has stopped backing away from whatever it is he’s seeing, and he’s muttering “no, no, no,” over and over to himself. He sounds so damn scared and Reza wants nothing more than to tell him it’s going to be okay, but he’s pretty sure Kurt’s in no position to hear him at the moment. 

“You can’t be here,” he whispers. “You  _ can’t.” _ He jolts backwards again, curling slightly into himself like something’s just tried to grab him. 

“Kurt,” Reza says, unable to watch this anymore.  _ “Kurt.” _

Kurt gives no indication that he’s heard, but Reza keeps talking to him anyway.  _ Try to distract him from whatever he’s seeing, try to let him know he’s safe.  _

“Kurt, there’s nobody there. It’s just me and you, right? Just us. There was something in that building...I dunno, a gas leak or something, and whatever it was got you good. You’re hallucinating. I assume. Seeing some guy who can’t be here. The only other guy here is me, though, but I think you weren’t talking to me.” He imagines who Kurt could have been talking to - dead people and murderers.

Kurt looks up at him, eyes still blown wide, body still trembling, but it’s an indication that he’s hearing Reza, at least, so he keeps talking.

“Anyway, people should be here soon to figure out what the gas is and fix it, and they’ll probably send an ambulance, too. I told them everyone got away, but they’ll want to be careful about it anyway. You can’t be too careful with gas leaks. And they’ll be able to help you. Give you some drugs or something to make whatever you’re seeing go away.”

Kurt hasn’t stopped staring at him, and it’s a little unnerving. His eyes are still far away, but they’re squinting, like he’s trying very hard to focus on Reza but can’t quite do it.

“I don’t suppose you want to go to the hospital, though. I wouldn’t. I’ll try and stop them from taking you, but that probably depends on what that gas was.”

He himself doesn’t particularly want to think about what that gas could have been. Nothing good, anyway, but hopefully nothing too terribly bad. 

Kurt makes a soft noise from in front of him, and his eyes have gone wide again. He points frantically behind Reza. 

“Rez!  _ Bomb,” _ he says, and that is just  _ fucking scary. _ Reza turns around, relieved to see absolutely nothing behind him. He turns back to Kurt, who looks positively panicked.  _ At least he recognized me,  _ Reza figures.  _ That’s a step up.  _

Kurt tries again to frantically signal to Reza about the nonexistent bomb. Reza, for his part, tries valiantly to indicate to Kurt that he’s fine and in no danger of getting blown up, though he understands the fear. Kurt  _ has  _ seen someone explode before. Two someones, in fact. Reza hopes there won’t ever be a third.

“Kurt, I  _ promise  _ you, there’s not a bomb. I’m fine.”

Kurt shakes his head, taking a shuddering breath. He looks  _ so damn afraid _ and he’s  _ so sure _ that Reza’s in danger, but there’s absolutely nothing for him to be afraid of, and Reza has no way to communicate this. 

He really wishes the ambulance would hurry up. They’ll have drugs to give Kurt, and he can pass out and wake up later, hopefully forgetting this had even happened. He just wants to help. But how?

He’s about to try and pull Kurt to his feet and get them somewhere else, somewhere that would be safe from a theoretical bomb, when Kurt stands up on his own, horribly unsteady on his feet. Reza grabs him unthinkingly to stop him from falling over, and Kurt doesn’t flinch back. Instead, he starts walking, rather slowly and uncertainly, grabbing Reza around the arm and pulling him along. They seem to be thinking along the same lines now.

They stop in an alley, where Kurt sinks down against a wall, still shaking and breathing too hard, but looking a little less afraid. 

“We’re safe now,” Reza tries to reassure him. Kurt nods, pressing his face to his knees. 

Reza sits down next to him, stretching his legs out along the ground. He very gently knocks his shoulder into Kurt’s, letting him know he’s there. Kurt leans into him slightly, and Reza can now physically feel him shaking.  _ He’ll be exhausted after this, _ he thinks,  _ but at least that means he’ll sleep it off.  _

He hears sirens.  _ Finally, _ he thinks, radioing out to let them know where he and Kurt are. “Take care of any civilians first,” he says. “We’ll be alright for a minute.”

He carefully wraps an arm around Kurt, leaving enough space between them so Kurt won’t feel trapped. He waits for a reaction, which he gets. 

Kurt turns his upper body towards Reza, looking at him with eyes that are a good deal clearer than before. There’s still some fear in them, but there’s recognition, too, and something like relief. He shuffles himself closer and buries his face in Reza’s shoulder.

Reza lets him, bringing up a hand to give Kurt a gentle thump on the back. He feels the shaking decrease slightly, and pulls his best friend a little closer as they wait for the paramedics to get to them. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading this!!!! i hope you liked it and please please please leave a comment if you did you will literally make me so happy and i will think about it all the time :)


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